John Jagerson

Broker Review: tradeMONSTER

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Like most brokers, we suggest that you ignore the published rates and call them to walk through your actual trading behavior. Doing this with each of the brokers you are evaluating will give you an much better idea of what your trading costs will actually be. (Learn more about why published rates are usually meaningless.)

Pros and Cons

tradeMONSTER has a very tight trading application. Everything is easy to find, totally integrated and is actually fairly useful. The commission structure was good and easy to understand.

The company has a reputation with active options traders and their service department/trading desk was excellent. We always got a good answer when we called and were able to reach someone within a few seconds.

The tradeMONSTER platform is easy to use and powerful, but if you don't have some experience in the options market you will probably get a little lost. Unfortunately, we feel that tradeMONSTER does a poor job at platform and market education. This was a surprise to us considering the relationship with optionMONSTER.

Like just about every broker specializing in the active options trader market, service was good and competent, but they were not very friendly on the phone. I think this is one of the trade-offs you make when you hire people with solid market experience. They know what they are talking about, which is good, but they sometimes intimidate more junior traders looking for help.

Conclusion

Overall, tradeMONSTER earned a place on our recommended broker list. They are a good alternative for a trader working exclusively in stocks and options, or an investor looking for a good broker to trade a portion of their portfolio dedicated to options strategies.

Order execution was reliable, the platform was solid and fast, and the tools and service were useful and comprehensive. However, their manuals were boring and not very useful.

Related articles:

• Opening Your Options Trading Account
• 4 Tips for Picking the Right Options Broker
• 7 Reasons You Need a Broker Who Specializes in Options
• 5 Tips for Moving Your Brokerage Account

For more broker advice, visit OptionsZone's Broker Center.